The Daltons Volume I Part 20

Dalton thinking of a little excursion after the woodc.o.c.ks down the Moorg Thai; and I have been indulging the hope that you 'll come along with us."

The very hint of an attention, the merest suggestion that bordered on a civility, struck a chord in old Dalton's nature that moved all his sympathies. It was at once a recognition of himself and his ancestry for generations back. It was a rehabilitation of all the Dal tons of Mount Dalton for centuries past; and as he extended a hand to each, and invited them to walk in, he half felt himself at home again, doing the honors of his house, and extending those hospitalities that had brought him to beggary.

"Are you serious about the shooting-party?" whispered Onslow to Jekyl, as he walked forward.

"Of course not. It's only a 'Grecian horse,' to get inside the citadel."

"My daughter, Miss Dalton; Mr. Jekyl Miss Kate Dalton. Your friend's name, I believe, is--"

"Captain Onslow."

Lady Hester started at the name, and, rising, at once said,

"Oh, George, I must introduce you to my fair friends. Miss Dalton, this gentleman calls me 'mamma;' or, at least, if he does not, it is from politeness. Captain Onslow Mr. Dalton. Now, by what fortunate event came you here?"

"Ought I not to ask the same question of your Ladys.h.i.+p?" said George, archly.

"If you like; only that, as I asked first--"

"You shall be answered first. Lady Hester Onslow, allow me to present Mr. Albert Jekyl."

"Oh, indeed!" drawled out Lady Hester, as, with her very coldest bow, she surveyed Mr. Jekyl through her gla.s.s, and then turned away to finish her conversation with Ellen.

Jekyl was not the man to feel a slight repulse as a defeat; but, at the same time, saw that the present was not the moment to risk an engagement. He saw, besides, that, by engaging Dalton in conversation, he should leave Lady Hester and Onslow at liberty to converse with the two sisters, and, by this act of generosity, ent.i.tle himself to grat.i.tude on all sides. And, after all, among the smaller martyrdoms of this life, what self-sacrifice exceeds his who, out of pure philanthropy, devotes himself to the "bore" of the party. Honor to him who can lead the forlorn hope of this stronghold of weariness. Great be his praises who can turn from the seductive smiles of beauty, and the soft voices of youth, and only give eye and ear to the tiresome and uninteresting. High among the achievements of un.o.btrusive heroism should this claim rank; and if you doubt it, my dear reader, if you feel disposed to hold cheaply such darings, try it, try even for once. Take your place beside that deaf old lady in the light auburn wig, or draw your chair near to that elderly gentleman, whose twinkling gray eyes and tremulous lip bespeak an endless volubility on the score of personal reminiscences. Do this, too, within earshot of pleasant voices and merry laughter, of that tinkling ripple that tells of conversation flowing lightly on, like a summer stream, clear where shallow, and reflective where deep! Listen to the wearisome bead-roll of family fortunes, the births, deaths, and marriages of those you never saw, and hoped never to see, hear the long narratives of past events, garbled, mistaken, and misstated, with praise and censure ever misapplied, and then, I say, you will feel that, although such actions are not rewarded with red ribbons or blue, they yet demand a moral courage and a perseverance that in wider fields win high distinction.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 166]

Albert Jekyl was a proficient in this great art; indeed, his powers developed themselves according to the exigency, so that the more insufferably tiresome his companion, the more seemingly attentive and interested did he become. His features were, in fact, a kind of "bore-ometer," in which, from the liveliness of the expression, you might calculate the stupidity of the tormentor; and the mercury of his nature rose, not fell, under pressure. And so you would have said had you but seen him that evening, as, seated beside Dalton, he heard, for hours long, how Irish gentlemen were ruined and their fortunes squandered. What jolly times they were when men resisted the law and never feared a debt! Not that, while devouring all the "rapparee"

experiences of the father, he had no eye for the daughters, and did not see what was pa.s.sing around him. Ay, that did he, and mark well how Lady Hester attached herself to Kate Dalton, flattered by every sign of her unbought admiration, and delighted with the wondering homage of the artless girl. He watched Onslow, too, turn from the inanimate charms of Nelly's sculptured figures, to gaze upon the long dark lashes and brilliant complexion of her sister. He saw all the little comedy that went on around him, even to poor Nelly's confusion, as she a.s.sisted Andy to arrange a tea-table, and, for the first time since their arrival, proceed to make use of that little service of white and gold which, placed on a marble table for show, const.i.tutes the invariable decoration of every humble German drawing-room. He even overheard her, as she left the room, giving Andy her directions a dozen times over, how he was to procure the tea, and the sugar, and the milk, extravagances she did not syllable without a sigh. He saw and heard everything, and rapidly drew his own inferences, not alone of their poverty, but of their unfitness to struggle with it.

"And yet, I'd wager these people," said he to himself, "are revelling in superfluities; at least, as compared to me! But, so it is, the rock that one man ties round his neck, another would make a stepping-stone of!"

This satisfactory conclusion gave additional sweetness to the bland smile with which he took his teacup from Nelly's hand, while he p.r.o.nounced the beverage the very best he had ever tasted out of Moscow.

And so we must leave the party.

CHAPTER XV. CONTRASTS

"So you think, Grounsell, I may be able to leave this in a day or two?"

said Sir Stafford, as, on the day following the events we have just related, he slowly walked up and down his dressing-room.

"By the end of the week, if the weather only continue fine, we may be on the road again."

"I'm glad of it, heartily glad of it! Not that, as regarded myself, it mattered much where I was laid up in dock; but I find that this isolation, instead of drawing the members of my family more closely together, has but served to widen the breach between them. Lady Hester and Sydney rarely meet; George sees neither of them, and rarely comes near me, so that the sooner we go hence the better for all of us."

Grounsell gave a dry nod of a.s.sent, without speaking.

"Sydney is very anxious to go and pa.s.s some time with her aunt Conway; but I foresee that, if I consent, the difference between Lady Hester and her will then become an irreconcilable quarrel. You don't agree with me, Grounsell?"

"I do not. I never knew the ends of a fractured bone unite by grating them eternally against each other."

"And, as for George, the lounging habits of his service and cigars have steeped him in an indolence from which there is no emerging. I scarcely know what to do with him."

"It's hard enough to decide upon," rejoined Grounsell; "he has some pursuits, but not one ambition."

"He has very fair abilities, certainly," said Sir Stafford, half peevishly.

"Very fair!" nodded Grounsell.

"A good memory, a quick apprehension."

"He has one immense deficiency, for which nothing can compensate," said the doctor, solemnly.

"Application, industry?"

"No, with his opportunities a great deal is often acquired with comparatively light labor. I mean a greater and more important element."

"He wants steadiness, you think?"

"No; I 'll tell you what he wants, he wants pluck!"

Sir Stafford's cheek became suddenly crimson, and his blue eyes grew almost black in the angry expression of the moment.

"Pluck, sir? My son deficient in courage?"

"Not as you understand it now," resumed Grouusell, calmly. "He has enough, and more than enough, to shoot me or anybody else that would impugn it. The quality I mean is of a very different order. It is the daring to do a thing badly to-day in the certain confidence that you, will do it better to-morrow, and succeed perfectly in it this day twelvemonth. He has not pluck to encounter repeated failures, and yet return every morning to the attack; he has not pluck to be bullied by mediocrity in the sure and certain confidence that he will live to surpa.s.s it; in a word, he has not that pluck which resists the dictation of inferior minds, and inspires self-reliance through self-respect."

"I confess I cannot see that in the station he is likely to occupy such qualities are at all essential," said Sir Stafford, almost haughtily.

"Twenty thousand a year is a fine thing, and may dispense with a great many gifts in its possessor; and a man like myself, who never owned a twentieth of the amount, may be a precious bad judge of the requisites to spend it suitably; but I 'll tell you one thing, Onslow, that organ the phrenologists call 'Combativeness' is the best in the whole skull."

"I think your Irish friend Dalton must have been imparting some of his native prejudices to you," said Onslow, smiling; "and, by the way, when have you seen him?"

"I went to call there last night, but I found a tea-party, and did n't go in. Only think of these people, with beggary staring them on every side, sending out for 'Caravan' tea at I don't know how many florins a pound."

"I heard of it; but then, once and away--"

"Once and away! Ay, but once is ruin."

"Well, I hope Prichard has arranged everything by this time. He has gone over this morning to complete the business; so that I trust, when we leave Baden, these worthy people will be m the enjoyment of easier circ.u.mstances."

"I see him crossing over the street now. I'll leave you together."

"No, no, Grounsell; wait and hear his report; we may want your advice besides, for I 'm not quite clear that this large sum of arrears should be left at Dalton's untrammelled disposal, as Mr. Prichard intended it should be a test of that excellent gentleman's prudence."

Mr. Prichard's knock was now heard at the door, and next moment he entered. His pale countenance was slightly flushed, and in the expression of his face it might be read that he had come from a scene of unusual excitement.

"I have failed, completely failed, Sir Stafford," said he, with a sigh, as he seated himself, and threw a heavy roll of paper on the table before him.